5 replies to this topic

[Deathsangel]

Hello dear forum,

Long time no see. I was wondering something. I noticed some activity in my old modding forum and was asked if a continuation was possible. So I checked my BG2. I have on several occassions been succesful in porting the whole game from one computer to another without the need to reinstall, including the mods which would cause those lovely string failures.
Unfortunately with the new windows 7 this is not the case.
What is the best way to go you guys think? Is there a way to let the game still run without installing everything again?
Or is it perhaps possible to install only the basic game. Than override with the full game I have and than play it all again as new?
Does anyone have any experience in this. I am aware of the multi-install tool (have to redownload it I think - I can not locate it in my archives) but have never used it, can that be of aid?

Thanks for any help in advance,
An oldtimer trying to get back on the bike

[Ayrus]

'Deathsangel', on 04 September 2011 - 09:25 PM, said:

Hello dear forum,

Long time no see. I was wondering something. I noticed some activity in my old modding forum and was asked if a continuation was possible. So I checked my BG2. I have on several occassions been succesful in porting the whole game from one computer to another without the need to reinstall, including the mods which would cause those lovely string failures.
Unfortunately with the new windows 7 this is not the case.
What is the best way to go you guys think? Is there a way to let the game still run without installing everything again?
Or is it perhaps possible to install only the basic game. Than override with the full game I have and than play it all again as new?
Does anyone have any experience in this. I am aware of the multi-install tool (have to redownload it I think - I can not locate it in my archives) but have never used it, can that be of aid?

Thanks for any help in advance,
An oldtimer trying to get back on the bike

In Windows 7, you should not install to Program Files directories. I don't know if you did this? Anyway, have you tried to simply copy the whole BG2 installation to a new location? And then perhaps change the paths in baldur.ini to that new location?

Alternatively, you could also install BG2 and ToB, let's say to D:\bg2\ (I use that directory), and then apply the official patch. Then rename that installation directory to something else (let's say d:\BG2-vanilla). And now copy or rename your current installation (the one you have modded) to d:\BG2. That way, the registry entries point to that location, and everything should work fine.

I always keep a vanilla version that way as a backup (well, actually I set all the settings like Debug mode etc so I don't have to do that again), since it's much faster to rename a couple of directories than uninstalling and installing the game(s) from scratch. If I make errors when installing mods, or if the mods conflict in a way that the installation is "broken", I can always revert to that vanilla-version and delete the modded version. Of course, this can take a lot of disk space. But in the end, once you are done with installing mods, you can always remove those backup installations if necessary.

I installed Easytutu and a lot of mods, and without making some backups every once in a while, I would have wasted a lot of time, since I made some errors.

[Jarno Mikkola]

'Ayrus', on 04 September 2011 - 11:34 PM, said:

Alternatively, you could also install BG2 and ToB, let's say to D:\bg2\ (I use that directory)

Should you know, there's few mods that like and only install if the game folder is named specifically as "BGII - SoA" ... at least that's what I have been told, so I would keep the original install structure like it was ... except ofcourse not install the game to the Program Files -folders, or to the "Programme" or "Archivos de programa" etc. if you don't have native English Window'es.

But like you said... this works well between computers too.

[Ayrus]

'Jarno Mikkola', on 04 September 2011 - 11:11 PM, said:

'Ayrus', on 04 September 2011 - 11:34 PM, said:

Alternatively, you could also install BG2 and ToB, let's say to D:\bg2\ (I use that directory)

Should you know, there's few mods that like and only install if the game folder is named specifically as "BGII - SoA" ... at least that's what I have been told, so I would keep the original install structure like it was ... except ofcourse not install the game to the Program Files -folders, or to the "Programme" or "Archivos de programa" etc. if you don't have native English Window'es.

But like you said... this works well between computers too.

Really? That sounds like a badly written installer. But I have never seen a mod like that. I don't know if any important mod would be like that, and it would probably be easy to simply extract that mod to that hard-coded path, which I would keep empty. Then I could simply create a 7-zip archive from that location for my own use. And I would think someone would create a proper installer from such a mod.

Granted, many mods which have an installer offer a default location as BGII - SoA, but that can be changed by typing a new location. Modern installers should be able to fetch the location from registry. Although to me zipped or 7zipped versions are fine, they are easier to install if you are experimenting with different configurations like I have done. I have only really used Easytutu and thus played BG1, so my experiences are somewhat limited.

I actually have extracted/installed a lot of mods to a directory (not to any BG2 installation). That way, if I need to reinstall, I don't have to go through the tedious task of double clicking through many mods and entering installation path every time, I simply copy that collection over to vanilla BG2-ToB directory and then decide which mod I install.

[Jarno Mikkola]

'Ayrus', on 05 September 2011 - 12:48 AM, said:

Granted, many mods which have an installer offer a default location as BGII - SoA, but that can be changed by typing a new location. Modern installers should be able to fetch the location from registry. Although to me zipped or 7zipped versions are fine, they are easier to install if you are experimenting with different configurations like I have done. I have only really used Easytutu and thus played BG1, so my experiences are somewhat limited.

Should you know, the fetching the install location from the registry is a bad idea ... why, because of why the registry entry was there in the first place. It's there for two things, it's to let the ToB to know where the SoA is installed, and to fake the SoA CD's to know if you have it installed. And by the way, you can make the computer install the SoA multiple times, but not the ToB as the registry entry prevents just that. So you cannot install the ToB multiple times which is a good idea in modifying the game...
But I myself have had 10 different BGII - ToB games 'installed' at the same time, on the same computer and only one of them was the registered one, and it was the unmodified that the registry was about, that all could be played using the links info.
I put that install to the ''-marks cause the games were one or another type of copies of the original.

[Deathsangel]

'Ayrus', on 04 September 2011 - 09:34 PM, said:

In Windows 7, you should not install to Program Files directories. I don't know if you did this? Anyway, have you tried to simply copy the whole BG2 installation to a new location? And then perhaps change the paths in baldur.ini to that new location?

Hello Ayrus, as said I did not install anything. I simply copied the old game into a new game directory (no, not program files ) and wondered if I could play it. Normally that always went fine. However, the path has changed. So changing the baldur.ini is probably the smarest idea. Thanks!

Quote

Alternatively, you could also install BG2 and ToB, let's say to D:\bg2\ (I use that directory), and then apply the official patch. Then rename that installation directory to something else (let's say d:\BG2-vanilla). And now copy or rename your current installation (the one you have modded) to d:\BG2. That way, the registry entries point to that location, and everything should work fine.

This was indeed my alternative solution.

Quote

I always keep a vanilla version that way as a backup (well, actually I set all the settings like Debug mode etc so I don't have to do that again), since it's much faster to rename a couple of directories than uninstalling and installing the game(s) from scratch. If I make errors when installing mods, or if the mods conflict in a way that the installation is "broken", I can always revert to that vanilla-version and delete the modded version. Of course, this can take a lot of disk space. But in the end, once you are done with installing mods, you can always remove those backup installations if necessary.

Well, I don't keep a vanilla but completely installed one so I don't need to do all mods all over again. However, perhaps it is wise if I ever want to play CA or TuTu

Will let you know how it worked once I get around to it.


[edit] Okay changing the .ini did not work. Will try the second method later.

Edited by Deathsangel, 06 September 2011 - 11:32 AM.